Thursday, February 05, 2009

We Don't Need Another Hiro...

It's back! Heroes is back! It's been more than a month since we last saw our intrepid heroes, and from the looks of things, there were a lot of changes that took place. But for the most part, I would say they are good changes.

It seems that the show-runners were listening when everyone was writing and blogging about the ways to save Heroes. A lot of thing have changed for the better--no more annoying trips to the future, Maya's gone (hurray!), Bennet's motives are back to being shady, Mohinder is no longer the fly, and Hiro is adorable again! And maybe, just maybe, we'll see the return of Peter's emo bangs.

Over at Greg Beeman's blog (he's a producer/director of the show), he mentions how Tim Kring wanted this volume ("Fugitives") to act as a kind of reboot of the show, and I think as a whole they were successful. After the events of the last volume's finale, the characters have resumed something of a normal life; Peter is working as an EMT, Sylar is off on his own being eeeeeeevil (and hot!), Claire is looking at colleges and apparently pissing off the makeup department because dear god they made her up to look like a clown, Matt and Speed Racer Chick are living in semi-domestic bliss, and Hiro is the cutest thing on the earth again. Apparently he has decided to make himself a sidekick to Ando, now that Ando is the one with the powers, and set up a "lair" for the two of them in an old building. Cuteness!

Other shows have gone with the reboot idea, and I think it works in some ways, but fails in others. First, it's successful because the fans get what they have been clamoring. A return to what they have been craving. The show is simply better when we see the main characters as normal people, going about their lives, yet having these remarkable abilities. The first season was about ordinary people with extraordinary powers working to save the world. Hopefully, we'll see that again. Also, one of the most compelling parts of the first season was deducing exactly whose side Bennet was on; this volume looks to be proceeding along that vein. I never thought that Bennet would be working with Nathan to help round up the heroes, but it makes perfect sense. Well played show!

But the ways in which a reboot will inevitably be disappointing is that it means you are essentially asking your audience to forget everything that came before. If the characters are acting like the events of the last volume didn't happen, it makes us feel kind of cheated that we hung in there with the show.

But, hey, you gotta roll with the punches, and so far I am psyched for what the next volume will bring.